Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (German: [aŋˈɡeːla doʁoˈteːa ˈmɛʁkl̩] ⓘ;[a] née Kasner; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician and chemist who served as chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union from 2000 to 2018.[9] Merkel was the first female chancellor of Germany.[b] During her chancellorship, Merkel was frequently referred to as the de facto leader of the European Union (EU) and the most powerful woman in the world. Beginning in 2016, she was often described as the leader of the free world.[13]
"Merkel" redirects here. For other uses, see Merkel (disambiguation).
Angela Merkel
- Franz Müntefering
- Frank-Walter Steinmeier
- Guido Westerwelle
- Philipp Rösler
- Sigmar Gabriel
- Olaf Scholz
- Ruprecht Polenz
- Laurenz Meyer
- Volker Kauder
- Ronald Pofalla
- Hermann Gröhe
- Peter Tauber
- Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
Gerhard Schröder
- Volker Kauder
- Norbert Röttgen
Friedrich Merz
Volker Kauder
Wolfgang Schäuble
Wolfgang Schäuble
Ruprecht Polenz
- Klaus Preschle
- Hubert Gehring
Steffie Schnoor
Helmut Kohl
- Stralsund – Rügen – Grimmen (1990–2002)
- Stralsund – Nordvorpommern – Rügen (2002–2013)
- Vorpommern-Rügen – Vorpommern-Greifswald I (2013–2021)
Christian Democratic Union (since 1990)
- Christian Democratic Union (East Germany, 1990)
- Democratic Beginning (1989–1990)
Am Kupfergraben, Berlin
Merkel was born in Hamburg in West Germany. Her family moved to East Germany when she was an infant. Merkel obtained a doctorate in quantum chemistry in 1986 and worked as a research scientist until 1989.[14] She then entered politics in the wake of the Revolutions of 1989, briefly serving as deputy spokeswoman for the first democratically elected government of East Germany led by Lothar de Maizière. Following German reunification in 1990, Merkel was elected to the Bundestag for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. As the protégée of chancellor Helmut Kohl, Merkel was appointed as Minister for Women and Youth in 1991, later becoming Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in 1994. After the CDU lost the 1998 federal election, Merkel was elected general secretary of the party. She then became the party's first female leader, and the first female Leader of the Opposition two years later.
Following the 2005 federal election, Merkel was elected chancellor, leading a grand coalition consisting of the CDU, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). She was the first woman to be elected chancellor, and the first chancellor of reunified Germany to have been raised in the former East Germany.[c] In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the vote, and Merkel subsequently formed a coalition government with the Free Democratic Party (FDP), an alliance more favourable to the CDU than the grand coalition.[16] In the 2013 federal election, the CDU won a landslide victory and formed a second grand coalition with the SPD, after the FDP lost all of its representation in the Bundestag.[17] In the 2017 federal election, Merkel led the CDU to become the largest party for the fourth time, resulting in the formation of a third grand coalition with the SPD.[18]
In foreign policy, Merkel emphasised international cooperation, both in the context of the EU and NATO, and the strengthening of transatlantic economic relations. In 2008, Merkel served as president of the European Council and played a central role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the Berlin Declaration. Merkel's governments managed the global 2007–2008 financial crisis and the European debt crisis. She negotiated the 2008 European Union stimulus plan, which focused on infrastructure spending and public investment to counteract the Great Recession. In domestic policy, Merkel's Energiewende program supported the development of renewable energy sources and eventually phased out the use of nuclear power in Germany. Reforms to the Bundeswehr, health care reform, the 2010s European migrant crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic were major issues during her chancellorship. Merkel stepped down as leader of the CDU and did not seek a fifth term as chancellor in the 2021 federal election.
Academic career
Merkel continued her education at Karl Marx University, Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978.[31] While a student, she participated in the reconstruction of the ruin of the Moritzbastei, a project students initiated to create their own club and recreation facility on campus. Such an initiative was unprecedented in the GDR of that period, and initially resisted by the university. With backing of the local leadership of the SED party, the project was allowed to proceed.[39]
Near the end of her studies, Merkel sought an assistant professorship at an engineering school. As a condition for getting the job, Merkel was told she would need to agree to report on her colleagues to officers of the Stasi. Merkel declined, using the excuse that she could not keep secrets well enough to be an effective spy.[40]
Merkel worked and studied at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Adlershof from 1978 to 1990. At first, she and her husband squatted in Mitte.[41] At the Academy of Sciences, she became a member of its FDJ secretariat. According to her former colleagues, she openly propagated Marxism as the secretary for "Agitation and Propaganda".[42] However, Merkel has denied this claim and stated that she was secretary for culture, which involved activities like obtaining theatre tickets and organising talks by visiting Soviet authors.[43] She stated: "I can only rely on my memory, if something turns out to be different, I can live with that."[42]
After being awarded a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) for her thesis on quantum chemistry in 1986,[44] she worked as a researcher and published several academic papers.[45][46] In 1986, she was able to travel freely to West Germany to attend a congress; she also participated in a multi-week language course in Donetsk, in the then-Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.[47]
2022–present: Post-chancellorship
On 31 January 2022, less than two months after she left office, her long-time rival Friedrich Merz, who she beat in 2002 to become leader of the opposition, took over as leader of the CDU.[211]
On 25 February 2022, only 24 hours after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Merkel told the DPA that she "condemned in the strongest terms [...] the war of aggression led by Russia, which marks a profound break in the history of post-Cold War Europe."[212]
In April that year, a spokesperson for Merkel stated that she "stood by her position at the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008," when she had opposed Ukraine's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance, a decision that had come under increased scrutiny.[212]
On 1 June 2022, Merkel made her first semi-public comments about political affairs since leaving office, at a retirement party for Reiner Hoffmann, the president of the German Trade Union Confederation. She criticised the "blatant violation of international law by Russia", expressed solidarity with Ukraine, and argued that "peace and freedom can never be taken for granted."[212]
On 7 June 2022, Merkel made her first public comments. In an interview with journalist Alexander Osang, she defended her past decisions on Ukraine and called Putin's aggression "not just unacceptable, but also a major mistake from Russia... It's an objective breach of all international laws and of everything that allows us in Europe to live in peace at all. If we start going back through the centuries and arguing over which bit of territory should belong to whom, then we will only have war. That's not an option whatsoever."[213] She also said that by the end of her chancellorship in September 2021, it had been clear that Putin was moving in the direction of conflict and that he was finished with the Normandy format talks.[214]
Political positions
Immigration, refugees and migration
In October 2010, Merkel told a meeting of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party at Potsdam that attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany had "utterly failed,"[215] stating that: "The concept that we are now living side by side and are happy about it" does not work[216] and "we feel attached to the Christian concept of mankind, that is what defines us. Anyone who doesn't accept that is in the wrong place here."[217] She continued to say that immigrants should integrate and adopt Germany's culture and values. This added to a growing debate within Germany on the acceptable levels and mechanisms of immigration, its effects on Germany, and the degree to which Muslim immigrants had integrated into German society.[218]
Merkel is in favour of a "mandatory solidarity mechanism" for relocation of asylum-seekers from Italy and Greece to other EU member states as part of the long-term solution to Europe's migrant crisis.[219][220]
Criticism
Merkel has been criticised for being personally present and involved at the M100 Media Award handover[262] to Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who had triggered the Muhammad cartoons controversy. This happened at a time of fierce debate over a book by the former Deutsche Bundesbank executive and finance senator of Berlin Thilo Sarrazin, which was critical of Muslim immigration.[263] At the same time, she condemned a planned burning of Qurans by a fundamentalist pastor in Florida.[264] The Central Council of Muslims in Germany[265][266] and the Left Party[267] (Die Linke) as well as the German Green Party[f][268] criticised the action by the centre-right chancellor. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper wrote: "This will probably be the most explosive moment of her chancellorship so far."[269]
The term alternativlos (German for "without an alternative"), which was frequently used by Angela Merkel to describe her measures addressing the European sovereign-debt crisis, was named the Un-word of the Year 2010 by a jury of linguistic scholars. The wording was criticised as undemocratic, as any discussion on Merkel's politics would thus be deemed unnecessary or undesirable.[270] The expression is credited for the name of the political party Alternative for Germany, which was founded in 2013.[271]
During a visit of U.S. President Barack Obama in Berlin, Merkel said on 19 June 2013 in the context of the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures: "The Internet is uncharted territory for us all" (German: Das Internet ist für uns alle Neuland). This statement led to various internet memes and online mockery of Merkel.[272][273]
During a state visit of the Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in January 2015, Merkel stated that "Islam is part of Germany", which induced criticism from within her party. Parliamentary group leader Volker Kauder stated that Muslims belong to Germany, but Islam does not, and that Muslims should "ask themselves why so many violent people refer to the Quran."[274][275]
At the conclusion of the May 2017 Group of Seven's leaders in Sicily, Merkel criticised American efforts to renege on earlier commitments on climate change. According to Merkel, the discussions were difficult and marred by dissent. "Here we have the situation where six members, or even seven if you want to add the EU, stand against one."[276]
Merkel has faced criticism for failing to take a tough line on the People's Republic of China.[277][278][279] The Asia Times reported that "Unlike certain of her European counterparts, her China diplomacy has focused on non-interference in Beijing's internal affairs. As such, Merkel was reportedly furious when her Foreign Minister Heiko Maas received Hong Kong dissident Joshua Wong in Berlin in September [2019], a move that Beijing publicly protested."[280]
Merkel's government decided to phase out both nuclear power and coal plants and supported the European Commission's Green Deal plans.[281][282] Critics blamed the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and closure of nuclear plants for contributing to the 2021–2022 global energy crisis.[282][283][284]
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Merkel faced renewed criticisms that she had failed to curb Russian president Vladimir Putin's ambitions and aggression by insisting on diplomacy and détente policies.[285][286][287] Critics argued that under her tenure, Germany and Europe was weakened by a dependency on Russian natural gas, including the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines,[285][286] and that the German military was neglected, disorganised, and underfunded.[288][287] By late 2021, Germany was importing 55% of its gas, 34% of its oil, and 52% of its coal from Russia.[289]
Merkel's chancellorship has become tightly associated with the policy of Wandel durch Handel, which advocates pursuing close economic ties with authoritarian governments with the goal of inducing democratization. When the Wandel durch Handel policy came under intense domestic and international scrutiny following the Russian invasion, Merkel received much of the blame,[221][223] leading Politico to write "[n]o German is more responsible for the crisis in Ukraine than Merkel".[222] Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy also blamed Merkel and then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to block Ukraine from joining NATO in 2008 for the war; Merkel released a statement that she stands by her decision.[290]
In the arts and media
Since 1991, Merkel has sat annually for sitting and standing portraits by, and interview with, Herlinde Koelbl.[339][340]
Merkel was portrayed by Swiss actress Anna Katarina in the 2012 political satire film The Dictator.[341]
Merkel features as a main character in two of the three plays that make up the Europeans Trilogy (Bruges, Antwerp, and Tervuren) by Paris-based UK playwright Nick Awde: Bruges (2014) and Tervuren (2016). A character named Merkel, accompanied by a sidekick called Schäuble, also appears as the sinister female henchman in Michael Paraskos's novel In Search of Sixpence.[342]
On the American sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live, Merkel has been parodied by Kate McKinnon.[343][344][345]
On the British sketch-comedy Tracey Ullman's Show, comedian Tracey Ullman has parodied Merkel to international acclaim.[346][347][348][349]
In 2016, a documentary film Angela Merkel – The Unexpected was produced by Broadview TV and MDR in collaboration with Arte and Das Erste.[350]